South Carolina Court of Appeal says Legitimate Exercise of Police Power Not a Taking. But the police drove a buldozer into the convenience store causing damage. Presumably they did this because it was an easier way for them to do thier job (save the hostage and arrest the criminal) than the alternatives. They did it for their own advantage.
There are other possibilities, but I don't like to think they are possible for any police force: that they were just yahoos who found an excuse to have fun with a bulldozer or that they actually thought that driving a bulldozer into a building minimized risk and harm to all concerned. It's hard to imagine any sensible person thinking that driving a bulldozer through a building is the best way to keep a potentially agitated criminal calm and rational or to ensure that in a moment of fear or excitement such criminal doesn't rashly harm the hostage. Maybe if theyy went to the George W. Bush school of diplomacy - "shock and awe", "shock and awe". Collateral dammage? Can't be helped?
I don't know what it is when the police can cause wanton destruction without liability but it sure isn't justice.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Global Democracy
As the US extends its authority around the globe, through its military, treaties, diplomacy, lobbying and extradition of foreigners from their native countries and residences to the US, to be prosecuted, convicted and incarcerated as foreigners, without any of the protections US citizens enjoy, in US courts and prisons, it is time, again, to question the fundamentals of democracy.
The US population is now less than 320 Million people. The global population is now more than 6.8 Billion people. Thus the US population is less than 5% of the global population.
The US population alone elects the US government, which decides what are the US laws and where to send the US military: who to incarcerate and who to kill. Thus over 95% of the global population are subject to US military force and US law, without any representation in US government or any significant influence on US government policy or law.
There are, yet, some jurisdictions where the supremacy of US law and military are incomplete but every year their reach and power grows.
Now, in most western countries, one can be a fully law abiding citizen, never having broken any law of ones place of birth and country of residence and citizenship and never having been to the US, yet be extradited to the US to be prosecuted, convicted and incarcerated according to US standards for foreigners. This is the result of extradition treaties which these countries have entered into, at the insistance of the US and then progressively, quietly, incrementally modified to facilitate extradition to the US.
If the US president, in his sole discretion, unilaterally declares anyone in the world to be an enemy combatant, then that person has almost no protection, no matter how innocent they may be.
95% of the world's population has absolutely no democratic rights in the most powerful country in the world - the country that, increasingly, imposes itself, unilaterally, on everyone. Is this the democracy that the US trumpets and holds so dear?
Is it time to establish a global democracy? One which gives democratic rights to everyone in the world? One which enfranchises and protects everyone, regardless of their place of birth, residency, citizenship, race, religion, culture, gender, age or other basis of prejudice? One which both ensures the rule of law and ensures that everyone is enfranchised to formulate that law through a democratic process untained by corruption or undue influence of any elite?
The US population is now less than 320 Million people. The global population is now more than 6.8 Billion people. Thus the US population is less than 5% of the global population.
The US population alone elects the US government, which decides what are the US laws and where to send the US military: who to incarcerate and who to kill. Thus over 95% of the global population are subject to US military force and US law, without any representation in US government or any significant influence on US government policy or law.
There are, yet, some jurisdictions where the supremacy of US law and military are incomplete but every year their reach and power grows.
Now, in most western countries, one can be a fully law abiding citizen, never having broken any law of ones place of birth and country of residence and citizenship and never having been to the US, yet be extradited to the US to be prosecuted, convicted and incarcerated according to US standards for foreigners. This is the result of extradition treaties which these countries have entered into, at the insistance of the US and then progressively, quietly, incrementally modified to facilitate extradition to the US.
If the US president, in his sole discretion, unilaterally declares anyone in the world to be an enemy combatant, then that person has almost no protection, no matter how innocent they may be.
95% of the world's population has absolutely no democratic rights in the most powerful country in the world - the country that, increasingly, imposes itself, unilaterally, on everyone. Is this the democracy that the US trumpets and holds so dear?
Is it time to establish a global democracy? One which gives democratic rights to everyone in the world? One which enfranchises and protects everyone, regardless of their place of birth, residency, citizenship, race, religion, culture, gender, age or other basis of prejudice? One which both ensures the rule of law and ensures that everyone is enfranchised to formulate that law through a democratic process untained by corruption or undue influence of any elite?
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
What if...
the people that would solve all our problems, by developing new science and understanding of ourselves and our environment, were never born because of concern about lack of resources, environmental deterioration, population explosion and overshoot?
Surely the way to ensure our saviours are born is to have babies: the more the merrier.
Is there any other way?
Surely the way to ensure our saviours are born is to have babies: the more the merrier.
Is there any other way?
The end...
This movie is long and depressing, but worth watching: Life at the End of Empire
There is more: the What a Way to Go Movie
But, I think, it is already too late. We are Wile E. Coyotee, hovering over the abyss, just beginning to look at our situation. But we have taken our whole world with us and we will all fall together.
There are enough people to whom others and the world are merely resources, with enough power and determination to perpetuate their privilege as long as possible, that there is no hope of a soft landing - the end has come. Yet, for a little longer, I live in interesting times.
There is more: the What a Way to Go Movie
But, I think, it is already too late. We are Wile E. Coyotee, hovering over the abyss, just beginning to look at our situation. But we have taken our whole world with us and we will all fall together.
There are enough people to whom others and the world are merely resources, with enough power and determination to perpetuate their privilege as long as possible, that there is no hope of a soft landing - the end has come. Yet, for a little longer, I live in interesting times.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Sidestreet Reny
I just stumbled on Sidestreet Reny today while hopping about on YouTube. Listened to a few tracks and really liking his style...
http://www.sidestreetreny.com/
Early In The Morning
http://www.sidestreetreny.com/
Early In The Morning
Monday, March 5, 2012
Forcing CGI::Session to create a new session
Older documentation for CGI::Session, including top ranked by Google, says:
In fact this behaviour (bug, in my opinion) has been known since 2009: see Bug 44994
The current documentation for CGI::Session is different. It quite clearly indicates that CGI is used and that setting the second argument to 'new' does not necessarily ensure a new session. But I didn't see guidance on how to get a new session when required either - maybe it's there somewhere, I didn't look very hard. In case it's not there, or not easy to find, the following works:
To force a new session, it is necessary to ensure CGI cannot return a session ID or pass something other than undef as the second parameter to CGI::Session->new() - something that will not be loaded as a session. If the requested session cannot be loaded then an empty session will be returned.
For example, an empty string could be passed instead of undef.
CGI::Session->new(undef, '', HASHREF);
As suggested in the bug report. Or, any other value that is defined and will never match an actual session ID. I repfer:
CGI::Session->new(undef, 'FORCE NEW SESSION', HASHREF);
That makes it clear what is intended. Hopefully no future changes will break this: it is, after all, rather undocumented behaviour.
new( DSN, SID, HASHREF )
Requires three arguments. First is the Data Source Name, second should be the session id to be initialized or an object which provides either of 'param()' or 'cookie()' mehods. If Data Source Name is undef, it will fall back to default values, which are "driver:File;serializer:Default;id:MD5".
If session id is missing, it will force the library to generate a new session id, which will be accessible through id() method.
In CGI::Session version 4.48, this isn't correct. If SID is not defined (not passed or explicitly passed as undef) then module CGI is required and a new query object is created by calling CGI->new(). This session is then searched for a cookie or parameter that defines the session ID. If a session ID is found, then this session is loaded, even if it is an old session and even though the documentation says a "new" session will be generated.In fact this behaviour (bug, in my opinion) has been known since 2009: see Bug 44994
The current documentation for CGI::Session is different. It quite clearly indicates that CGI is used and that setting the second argument to 'new' does not necessarily ensure a new session. But I didn't see guidance on how to get a new session when required either - maybe it's there somewhere, I didn't look very hard. In case it's not there, or not easy to find, the following works:
To force a new session, it is necessary to ensure CGI cannot return a session ID or pass something other than undef as the second parameter to CGI::Session->new() - something that will not be loaded as a session. If the requested session cannot be loaded then an empty session will be returned.
For example, an empty string could be passed instead of undef.
CGI::Session->new(undef, '', HASHREF);
As suggested in the bug report. Or, any other value that is defined and will never match an actual session ID. I repfer:
CGI::Session->new(undef, 'FORCE NEW SESSION', HASHREF);
That makes it clear what is intended. Hopefully no future changes will break this: it is, after all, rather undocumented behaviour.
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